Every Picture Tells a Story Part 2: Writing Photo Stories

How to Turn Your Photographs Into Memories

The Power of Stories Academywww.powerofstories.academy

Short piece of narrative

Shares the story

Photo or group of photos

Provides more detail

Background and context

Adds life experience, opinions or feelings

“BUT I AM NOT A WRITER!”

How to Write

a Photo Story

in Five Easy Steps

Consider your audience Yourself, children, grandchildren, descendants,

friends, co-workers, organization

What stories do you want to tell? Your childhood, your parents’ story, your children’s

childhood, special vacation, achievement, love story, family home, traditional holiday celebration

How do you want to tell them? How honestly? What about privacy?

What will your end product be?

Remember the three techniques:

1. Look with fresh eyes

2. The slow reveal

3. Eyes wide shut

Make your memory list

Make sure it includes: Who When Where What the people are doing, feeling, showing, saying

Use all five senses: What did this scene look, sound, smell, taste, feel

like?

You have the building blocks

Now just write

4-6 sentences about your photo(s)

Try to identify the heart of the story

Consider your audience What will matter to them

What might not be obvious to them

Be selective – you don’t have to include every memory you uncovered

Repeat this process for other photos in your group

Several short narratives

Or combine into one longer

Narrate an entire scrapbook/photo album

Bullet Points Turn each memory into a complete sentence.

Lists Top Ten Things I Remember about this photo

Headlines Imagine a newspaper running a story about your photo(s).

What would the headline be?

Dialogue Recall or reimagine what the people in the photo are

saying to each other

Poetry Structure can make writing easier. Try a haiku or a limerick!

Verify facts, dates etc.

Consider your audience

Tell the stories that are important to you

Tell the truth Write only what you're comfortable telling.

Think carefully before concealing or withholding.

Guard against dark motivations

But don't shy away from writing about hard times.

Anything left out?

Verify details

Check for detail and sensory images

Show don’t tell

Choose powerful words Watch for passive tense Change out “is”, “was” “nice” “good”

“Grandma’s fried chicken was good.”Vs.

“Grandma’s crispy fried chicken tasted like home.”

Find a writing buddy

In person or online

Someone who will: Share in the memories

Offer constructive feedback

Ask questions when something is unclear

Tell you what to leave out/where to add more

Less about content

More about form

Editing includes: Checking spelling, grammar,

punctuation

Verifying spelling of names

Rereading for style consistency

Check for flow

Eliminate redundancies, irrelevancies

Keep going

Combine into a longer work

Create a family tree – with a story about each leaf

Copy and bind stories as a holiday gift

Prepare stories for school reunion, post on website/Facebook page

Read a story aloud at a

family event

For more helpful information about saving your memories, visit:

www.cincinnatiseniorconnection.org